Devils season ends with tourney loss

Wednesday

Feb 27, 2013 at 9:40 PMFeb 27, 2013 at 9:45 PM

MARK MARTIN

RAVENSWOOD – For much of the 2012-13 boys basketball season, Ravenswood was notorious for getting off to slow starts. In several of those games, the Devils would then rebound and play a strong second half.

It was just the opposite Monday night in a Class AA Region 1, Section 2 Tournament contest on the Mick Price Court at the Old Gymnasium.

Ravenswood started strong but then fizzled in the second half, which ultimately led to a 54-41 victory for the Eagles and a quick end to the postseason for the Devils.

“We just didn’t give ourselves a chance to be successful,” stated head coach Mick Price following the loss.

The defeat gave the Devils a final record of 5-17. Braxton moved to 6-17 and advanced to play Webster, the section’s No. 1 seed, on Tuesday. The winner of the Braxton-Webster game was to meet the survivor of a showdown between No. 3 seed Ritchie and No. 2 seed Roane. The sectional title game was set for tomorrow (Friday) night on the higher seed’s home floor.

As the No. 4 seed in the five-team sectional Ravenswood earned the home court advantage for its contest with Braxton, who came in as the fifth seed. Early on, it appeared the Devils were going to take full advantage of playing before a crowd mostly wearing red and black.

Ravenswood shot out to a 20-14 lead in the game’s opening eight minutes of play and held on to a 30-27 advantage at the break.

In the second half it was all Ravenswood could do to break double digits in the 16-minute stretch. The Devils were just 2-of-19 from the floor and both of those shots came in the third period. Ravenswood was 0-of-11 in the fourth quarter in field goal attempts.

“You just aren’t going to win many games when you shoot like that,” said Price.

He was encouraged early on.

“We got off to a good start,” he said. “Then, we lost our confidence and didn’t look to score. We made some poor decisions with the ball.”

Ravenswood committed 16 turnovers in the contest.

Junior Jake Martin was the Devil leader in scoring with 22 points. He made nine field goals and was 4-of-7 at the free throw line.

Heath Burgess scored nine points, Dalton Gandee had five, including a 3-pointer, Jon Crow scored three on a shot from behind the arc while Matt Peery and Travis Rawson each scored one. Austin Rhodes was the leading scorer for Braxton with 14.

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